Potentially, yes.

Under the current Migration Regulations, an applicant for a Partner (Temporary) visa, which includes the Subclass 820 Partner visa, must be in Australia when making the application.

Being in Australia on a Visitor visa does not, by itself, prevent you from applying.

What matters is your particular visa and your circumstances.

One of the first things we look at is whether your current visa contains a No Further Stay condition, such as condition 8503.

If it does, that can prevent you from lodging many further visa applications while you are in Australia.

Importantly, not every Visitor visa is the same.

For example, under the current regulations, condition 8503 must be imposed on a Subclass 600 Visitor visa granted in the Sponsored Family stream. For an ordinary Subclass 600 Tourist stream visa it may be imposed, depending on the individual visa grant.

That is why we always check the actual visa grant notice and VEVO before telling somebody they can simply apply for an onshore Partner visa.

This is where things become less certain.

ABC News reported in early August that the Government was considering a broader migration package which could prevent spouses, children and parents of Australian citizens and permanent residents from applying for family visas while they are in Australia as tourists.

For couples, this could potentially affect one of the pathways we regularly deal with:

Visitor visa → Arrive in Australia → Subclass 820/801 Partner visa

At present, we don't know exactly how the Government intends to implement the change.

There are several ways it could theoretically be done.

Option 1: More Visitor visas could receive a No Further Stay condition

One possibility would be to impose condition 8503, or a similar restriction, on more Visitor visas.

Condition 8503 is nothing new. It already exists and prevents the holder from applying for many temporary and permanent visas while in Australia. Home Affairs confirms that a No Further Stay condition can be imposed on Visitor visas and that waiver is only available in particular circumstances.

If the Government simply expanded the circumstances in which 8503 must be imposed, the change might principally affect Visitor visas granted after the new rules commenced.

That could mean people already holding a Visitor visa without 8503 would be in a different position.

But that is only one possibility.

Option 2: The Government could change the Partner visa application rules themselves

The other possibility is potentially much more significant.

The Government could amend the rules governing whether an onshore Partner visa application is valid.

For example, the regulations could potentially be changed so that a person who holds, or perhaps previously held, a particular Visitor visa is prevented from making a valid onshore Partner visa application.

At present, Schedule 1 of the Migration Regulations sets out the requirements for making a valid Partner (Temporary) visa application, including that the applicant must be in Australia.

If those requirements were amended, a change could potentially affect someone who already holds a Visitor visa in Australia, even where their visa does not contain condition 8503.

Whether that happens will depend entirely on how any new law is actually written.

And at the moment, we simply don't have that wording.

This is probably the question we are going to hear most often.

The answer right now is:

Don't assume you have lost your opportunity to apply.

If your partner is already in Australia and you have been planning an 820/801 Partner visa application, there may still be a perfectly valid onshore pathway available under the current rules.

However, I would also not recommend putting an application off for six months on the assumption that the current rules will always remain available.

Immigration law changes.

Sometimes there are generous transitional arrangements.

Sometimes there aren't.

And sometimes the date an application is lodged becomes extremely important.

Not necessarily.

There is an important difference between not unnecessarily delaying an application and rushing an application simply because you are frightened the rules might change.

A Partner visa is one of the most expensive visa applications you are likely to lodge.

More importantly, it needs to properly establish your relationship against the criteria considered by the Department, including the:

• financial aspects of your relationship;
• nature of your household;
• social aspects of your relationship; and
• nature of your commitment to one another.

There can also be complications involving previous visas, previous refusals, Schedule 3, relationship duration, sponsorship limitations and visa conditions.

We would much rather lodge a strong, decision-ready application than throw something together simply to get an application into the system.

However, if you are already eligible, already planning to apply and simply haven't got around to doing it, this proposed change is a very good reason to get your ducks in a row.